Visual Clutter
Over at BBC News, I stumbled across a story about cameras being used to enforce the speed limit in England. Two police officers from North Yorkshire were photographed speeding in a neighboring district. They successfully challenged the legality of the speed limit signs based on the presence of a proscribed black border. Basically, they're weasels. But it concerns me to hear the other officials in the story utterly discount the impact of the black border. Though the effect in this case is marginal (roll your mouse over the image to see the difference,) the visual phenomenon at the heart of the issue is very real. It's documented more poiniently in this graphic from Envisioning Information.
Posted August 14, 2003
CMU Grad Studio